Maybe This Time
by Lariren-Shadow
Summary: It's been five years since she's seen him and maybe she wants things the way they were. Maiko.


**Disclaimer:** I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender.

**A/N:** This is dedicated to ladyhadhafang over at livejournal. We have a very long discussion about Maiko and hence this.

* * *

It had been five years since she had been in Royal Caldera City, five years since she was in the Palace, and five years since she had seen him. It did not help her whole 'I will not be the girl that goes back to her ex' mentality that he was actually smiling, laughing, looking good and making her remember what it was like to kiss him. Yet she was happy he was happy. She was even smiling, something she was still getting used to doing.

She felt a hand grasp hers. Her little brother, Tom Tom, was looking up at her. At seven he was in the awkward position of being just old enough to be older than most of the other children at the commemoration of the end of the war and just young enough to be too young to be with the older children. "I'm bored," he stated simply. She smiled again, in the five years she had managed to spend two of them getting to know her little brother. They had come up with a plan of escape for every time he was bored. He would come to her, just grab her hand (words weren't necessary) and she would sneak him out with her. She learned better stealth techniques from that year spent with Ty Lee on Kyoshi.

"All right, let's get out of here shall we?" Not that she really wanted to leave. She had wanted to stay a little longer, her friends were there (and another ex of hers, the boy Zuko had been jealous of so many years ago on Ember Island) and maybe, just maybe, she wanted to see if she could smile and be happy at a stupid boring society party. However, she kept her promises.

Ducking and weaving their way through the crowd Mai and Tom Tom managed to escape. She thought for a moment as to where to take him (most of the time they would just wait outside and either they would practice throwing knives or he would show her what he had been learning in his firebending lessons). She finally decided that the garden where she had played with Azula and Ty Lee as a child was close enough to still see when the party was winding down to sneak back in but out of way enough for them to be alone.

"Why don't you show me what you've been learning?" She suggested. He quickly got into his first stance and took a deep breath before moving through the proper motions. She watched with a sororal pride as he produced small flames when he was supposed to and at how he could move through the stances with ease.

"Tom Tom's a firebender?" She jumped at the sound of his voice.

"Zuko! Go back inside," she wasn't chiding him; her tone lacked the vehemence a reprimand needed.

"They won't miss me for a little. Sokka's children are causing quite a commotion."

"Oh, what are they doing now?" He looked at her strangely. She actually sounded curious.

"His son decided to show off his bending by splattering the punch around the room and his daughter, not to be out done by her brother, grabbed Suki's fans and started slashing them at everything." She merely shook her head; she had become, rather unexpectedly, friends with Suki during her time on Kyoshi. She felt for the warrior; Sokka didn't seem like the easiest person to be married to.

"Urgh, why won't this move work!" Tom Tom complained.

"You're trying to force it too much," Zuko said moving over to stand next to the boy. For his part Tom Tom just stared in awe. The _Fire Lord_ was helping _him_ with his bending. Never mind that the fact his sister had dated him, he had also taught the Avatar. "You have to breathe through the move, your strength is in your breath," Zuko was moving through the motions himself, over emphasizing where he was breathing. Tom Tom followed suit and so did his fire. "Yes! I did it!" He jumped up in the air to congratulate himself. After celebrating he turned and bowed to Zuko. "Thank you Fire Lord Zuko."

She almost laughed at the absurd look on Zuko's face. "You're smiling again," Zuko noted.

"Yeah, I tend to do that now," was her brisk reply. He kept looking at her and she sighed. "A lot of things changed since we broke up."

"Maybe you could tell me about the past five years tomorrow?" He asked. She noted the hope in his voice and the little flutter in her stomach at it. Maybe there was no moving on from your first love.

"She's has nothing to do tomorrow," Tom Tom added while the two adults just looked at each other.

"Sure, whatever," was her only reply to that.

"There's the Mai I knew," he teased. "Come on, let's go back inside."

* * *

"Your hair is different."

"What kind of a greeting is that?"

"Its just," Zuko fumbled for words, "I've only ever seen your hair down right after you wake up." She was trying very hard not to regret changing her hairstyle for one day as well as not remember what he had looked like just after waking up. He got up from his desk, motioning for her to take a seat at the low table surrounded by cushions.

"People change."

"They do," she noticed something in his voice and she wasn't sure what it was. "Would you like some tea or maybe fruit tarts?" He smiled knowingly at her as she laughed.

"Sure, for old times." She watched as Zuko pulled a cord that summoned a servant. Once the food and drink arrived there was a moment when they both reached for the teapot to pour. She let go with a "after you".

"Tell me how you've been," so she did. She told him about her time with Ty Lee, her first round of trying to live with her family, how she readily took Iroh up on his offer of letting her visit him for a little.

"You actually served tea?"

"Iroh said he was happy to have the company but I couldn't sit and mope all day. I had to at least be useful. Apparently creating new holes in the wall with knives isn't useful."

For the first time it really felt easy to talk to him. She even found herself talking about Ruon-Jian and what it had been like dating him; about her mother pushing her on every well placed available man and how she had maneuvered her way out of every opportunity to be alone with said men. And he laughed and commented every so often and somehow he was talking about what he'd been doing and she was actually interested in listening to him talk. She even helped reassure him that he was leading the Fire Nation in the right direction. She realized this was very different than when they were seventeen.

A knock at the door interrupted them. The same girl who had brought the tea respectfully bowed before asking "My Lord, will you be taking your dinner in here again? Will Lady Mai be joining you?" It was then that Mai realized how late it had become.

"I think-" Zuko started before Mai jumped in. "No, I have to go," Zuko looked at her questioningly. "Its something Tom Tom and I do now, we try to have dinner together. At least since I began taking care of him on Ember Island while our parents stayed in Omashu." It almost sounded silly when she said it.

"Oh, that's…good," he paused and she waited to see if there was anything else. "When can I see you again?" And that was the question she didn't particularly have an answer to. Before her mind could really think things through she heard herself saying, "why don't you join us tomorrow night?"

"Sounds good," echoed in her head as she made her way out of the Palace cursing at herself for not thinking.

* * *

Mai found herself in the same position she had been in five years ago: sprawled out on her bed, absent mindedly playing with one of her knives and contemplating the state of her relationship with Zuko. Only this time it she hadn't been dating him for a year and she wasn't eighteen. She didn't have a name for what they had been doing for the past six months. It wasn't dating; they didn't really go anywhere yet they did spend time together. Either he would come over for dinner or she would spend time with him during the day.

She threw the knife at the wall in frustration before falling back with a huff and covering her eyes with her arm. This wasn't supposed to happen. It had been too easy to fall into this routine and now she had those old feelings surfacing again along with some entirely new and slightly unsettling ones. Like when she watched Zuko help Tom Tom with bending. Her stomach clenched into a pleasant knot at that while she imagined Zuko teaching their child to bend. Her stomach did the same thing just thinking about it.

_This has to stop_, she commanded herself. _I've done the whole relationship with Zuko and look how it turned out. I don't want to get involved in that again._

_But this time no one is forcing you together_, another voice in her head commented. _You're not with him out of convenience or because you were before. In fact you had every right to say no plenty of times and stop this but you didn't._

"Great," she muttered out load, "now I have two voices arguing in my head."

_You know the best way for this to stop is to talk with him, _the first voice whispered. She knew that was the right answer. She had stood up to Azula and spent time in the Boiling Rock, how horrible could this be?

_It's worse because now your heart is involved again_.

* * *

She was curled up with Zuko on the couch much as they had been before. Only this time he was taller now so he had to bend his knees to stay fully on the couch. Her lips felt swollen and she was certain that tomorrow they would have matching marks on their necks but right now she was happy to just be lying next to him.

Her fingers were lightly caressing his still covered chest while she tried to think of a good way to bring up what she wanted. Deciding that being frank was the best option she simply asked, "what are we doing?"

She felt a small rumble in his chest as he chuckled. "We're hoping your brother stays in his room."

She instantly stilled and propped herself up so she could see his face. "No Zuko, I meant what is this. You and I."

"Well, I guess you're my girlfriend."

"Oh, you _guess _I'm your girlfriend? What else would I be?"

"Clearly we're together. What more do you want?"

"I want to know where this is going. We've been together before and look how it turned out. I…I don't know why its important to know what we are but it is. To me."

He sighed and rubbed his hand over his face in frustration. "I don't want to call you my girlfriend because we've done that. You're more than that but there isn't a good way to describe it."

Mai could feel her hear pounding. _He can't be asking what I think he is_, she thought. "So what do you mean?"

"I've been thinking about what it would mean for us to stay together. What it would be like if you were Fire Lady." There were the words that she had wanted to hear years ago but never did. Before she could respond he began again, "this feels different than before, in a good way."

"I feel the same way," she paused. "What would being Fire Lady entail?"

"You really want to know? Before you seemed so disinterested in everything."

"I know I was. Now I'm not so just tell me."

"Besides the obvious duty of producing an heir the Fire Lady hears every petition the Fire Lord does, oversees our educational system. You would run the Palace household and help organize and plan celebrations and the like. I'm sure there's other things you can do but those are the things I can think of right now. How does that sound?"

She had a lot to think about. It sounded doable, logical, and like something she could possibly be good at. "I think," she began, looking him straight in the eyes, "I want to take a look at what some of that actually means."

"Good, I have a few petitions I want a second opinion on. We can look them over tomorrow."

"I'd like that," she whispered before kissing him.

* * *

**A/N** (the longer version): You can entirely skip reading this part if you like. Sorry if they seem a little OOC, I don't usually write Maiko. In fact I don't think I'll ever do it again. I have issues with how it ends in the show (really, she's going back to him after he's effectively broken up with her twice and left her in jail? When there has been time for him to write to get her out?). I always thought they were missing something and that if they were supposed to be together they would have to talk about what it means for Mai. And, well, Zuko too but he's always talking about everything with her in the show. In other things I'm pretty sure I stole the idea of Tom Tom being a firebender from someone as well as Mai dating Roun-Jain.


End file.
